A Systematic Review of Indicators Used to Measure Industrial Sustainability

The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the indicators that have been used to measure industrial sustainability. A systematic literature review was conducted to explore indicators published in peer-reviewed articles that are relevant to industrial sustainability performance measurement. A total of 1013 indicators were identified and analyzed: 277 for economic, 402 for environmental and 334 for social dimensions of industrial sustainability. The majority of the indicators were used only once, implying a lack of consistency and consensus on their application for measuring industrial sustainability, and invites an ongoing debate on how sustainability should be measured in different industry contexts. On the other hand, few indicators such as profit, research and development expenditure, product quality, revenue, material cost, labor cost, water consumption, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, material consumption, employment/job opportunity, employee turnover and work-related injuries were consistent and frequently used for measuring industrial sustainability. The consistent indicators have been used to measure industrial sustainability performance associated with financial benefits, costs, market competitiveness, resources, emissions, wastes, employees, customers, and the community. This paper provides a comprehensive view of indicators considering the triple bottom line dimensions of sustainability. It will contribute to future academic and practitioner work on the measurement of industrial sustainability performance.